sleepless night

This picture - of Alex and Ward in our happy kitchen - is actually from the very first morning waking up in Flatland. Ward was the first to wake up, and so he crawled down the ladders al the way from the fourth floor to find the coffemachine in the basement......almost three weeks (efa)



It’s Wednesday night, 3 am and I have difficulties sleeping. There has been thunder and heavy rain outside, I can feel that slowly the warm stuffy air in the Sculpture Center is being exchanged by cooler and fresher oxygen. Thank God. When me moved in Flatland more than 2 weeks ago we experienced some very cold nights also, with not only me catching a cold. But one is able to tell that by now it must be summer in NY. I’m glad that it turned out to be the month of May for this project and not earlier and not later.

Alex, Ward and me agreed at dinner that the day shifted 180 degrees regarding our mood - from a boring start in the morning (again no internet and that for 2 days!) to the exciting news in the afternoon to being able to go online again. Then having a friend visit who brought us pizza(!). How comforting was that! We have been running slow on food recently because on the one hand we have been trying to eat up what’s still left in the kitchen and on the other hand we haven’t been able to order Fresh Direct on time because of no internet. When I checked my emails again after the absence I heard that they wrote an article in the Austrian Newspaper DerStandard which cheered us up, also a journalist from the Guardian was on its way to meet us. Hopefully they will mention Flatland and the show “The Happiness of Objects” in the next Friday Times.

So Alex is leaving tomorrow afternoon with Ward and myself remaining as the last two flatlanders. Each time somebody has left, the structure appears to become more like a regular apartment, more and more luxurious, more quiet. Hey, I don’t have to wait anymore before taking a shower or just the fact that all of a sudden you have a whole floor to yourself. We turned Doug & Eva’s space next to the kitchen into a dining area where for the first time we can sit down on a table to eat! These are the things that you start to appreciate. I wouldn’t have imagined that flatland could become such a normal environment to live in. It is easily possible to only live like this, no problem, but of course having the possibility to come and go as you like. I guess lots of people don’t have more private space anyway, in Tokyo for example.

Now I am slowly starting to think about my old life and what I will do after Sunday when we finally move out. I know everything will make me feel reborn again! Smelling the air, the sun, riding the bike, being in my apartment, meeting up with friends, even sleeping in a normal size bed – what a wonderful thought, …That all will be very exciting again. Doug has called Ward the other day and mentioned that he and Eva felt worse than having jetlag after they left. Everything was exhausting and they had cramps in their feet just from walking!
I will try and go back to sleep now.